Profiles in Faith - June

As part of our initiative for the Year of Faith, Veritasis proud to present Profiles in Faith, a series of essays on the life and work of Christian men and women who lived their lives as ‘faith in action’. We encourage you to read the accounts, and to reflect on them over the course of the month. Additional biographical sources are also suggested, should you wish to find out more.

Profile Nine: Blessed Irish Martyrs

The word ‘martyr’ in its original Greek meant ‘witness’. Over time it became the term given to those people who were willing to give witness to their faith even to the point of suffering and death.

The history of the early Church is filled with stories of martyrs, such as Peter and Paul, Stephen, Agatha and Priscilla, whose life and death stories manifest the power of their faith. These courageous disciples inspired hope in the early Church and fuelled the ranks of those who came to believe in Jesus. Knowing that their lives would probably end in torturous ways, the martyrs trusted that the Holy Spirit would give them strength to face pain, suffering and death. Their witness gave rise to the saying, ‘The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians’.

The Stoning of St. Stephen by Giacinto Gimignani

Blessed Margaret Ball

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Catholic faith in Ireland was under persecution and many people made the ultimate sacrifice. The names of most of these people were never recorded. The first catalogue of Irish Martyrs was compiled between 1588 and 1599 by Fr John Houling. This list was added to by Conor O'Devany, Bishop of Down and Connor. O'Devany himself was imprisoned and killed and is now listed as one of the martyrs.

In the early years of the twentieth century an attempt was made to catalogue details of 260 martyrs in order to have them declared saints. Such was the volume of documentation involved that the task proved impossible. In 1975, the then Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Dermot Ryan, established a commission that concentrated on the details of just seventeen of these martyrs who were put to death between 1579 and 1654. The merit of their case was accepted by the Vatican and they were formally declared ‘Blessed’ by Pope John Paul II in 1992.

While remembering these Irish Martyrs, we must also remember the scores of others – men and women – who gave their lives for the faith but whose sacrifice was never officially recognised. We must also recognise that the story of Christian martyrs is still being written today. In fact, it is estimated that 75 per cent of people who suffer for their faith today are Christians.

Attack on the Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria, Egypt. Saturday, 1 January 2011

For Reflection:

- Do you know of Christians who are still being persecuted in some parts of the world because they are giving witness to their faith?- What aspect, belief or practice of Christian faith would you be willing to suffer for?